


Double Bass

by tsuduku



Category: the GazettE
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Gen, Suspense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-12 13:40:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7107196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsuduku/pseuds/tsuduku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Who are you? And why do you have that over your nose???"<br/>-<br/>Reita's peaceful life was suddenly turned upside down all because of his beloved nose band. Criminals mistook him for one of their own! In order to save his skin, Reita must carry out a list of tasks while he is touring the world with the band. As if a rockstar's life wasn't already adventurous enough, he now has to lead a double life as a criminal. What could possibly go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Alley

It had been another late night at the office making preparations and plans for the upcoming tour. Reita was the last to leave that night. He locked the doors behind him and he started to make the short walk home.  
'what a lovely night'  
he thought to himself. The moon was full, the air was nice and cool, and it was calm and quiet. The silence was soon interrupted by the sound of a rugged voice calling out to him. 

"Oi! Oi you! Get over here!"   
Reita stopped in his tracks and turned around to find the source of the voice. Out from a dark alley stepped a small, but tough looking man wearing a handkerchief over the lower half of his face. The man walked up to Reita and stood in front of him, strong arms crossed over his chest.   
"I don't want any trouble" said Reita "I was just le-"   
"We won't give you any trouble if you just come with us"   
And before Reita could protest, two other men stepped out of the alley and grabbed him by the arms. They dragged him along into a van that was hidden in the alley, and soon they drove off. Reita remained silent throughout the entire ride, rather intimidated by his captors. About 20 minutes later the van came to a stop and he was lead out into a nightclub. They shoved past the crowd of people and to a very narrow staircase that lead down into a basement. Reita looked around in hopes of finding some sort of escape, and in his silence he pleaded for his life. He started to think of all the things he could do if he made it out of here alive, about how much more appreciative he would be of his life, how he could be a better friend, how he could better himself... 

"He's here" said the short man. 

The other two captors sat him down onto a chair in front of a messy desk a dimly lit makeshift office , and they walked off. A few moments of sitting in silence and suddenly the swivel chair behind the desk turned around to reveal another man sitting in it. As soon as Reita caught the other man's gaze he immediately looked away. A pair of dark angry eyes scanned him silently. In that moment, he mustered up enough courage to speak up.  
"W-what do you want with me?" asked Reita   
"You should know" replied the man "I believe I briefed you about the details of this operation in the message I sent last week"   
Operation? Message? What was this man talking about? He hadn't received any suspicious type of messages in the past week. Could it be possible that this person assumed he was someone else? But how?   
"What? I never got any messages. You must be mistaking me for someone else! I'm no criminal I can assure you!"   
"Who are you? And why do you have that over your nose?" 

Earlier that day Reita had received a new handkerchief as an apologetic gift from his neighbors for having kept him up all night with their partying. He had worn it to work and had completely forgotten about it. He was so accustomed to having a piece of fabric over his nose, and everyone else was so accustomed to seeing him that way, that no one had paid much attention when he walked out that night still wearing it over his nose.   
"um.... why not?" was the best reply that Reita could come up with in that moment. "I'm just a musician. You can look me up to prove I'm not lying! I'm no criminal I swear!"   
The mysterious man groaned and then rubbed his temples with his fingers. Well this was embarrassing.   
"Our contact told us that he would be wearing a black and white handkerchief, and that he would meet my men in that alley. Those three idiots didn't listen closely enough and just grabbed the first suspicious man they saw walking by" the man groaned again and his cold gaze suddenly grew colder as he thought of what he could do with those three men. The new guys always messed things up but never this bad.    
When the realization hit Reita he felt a huge wave of relief followed by a memory of Ruki's mocking voice, _'you're so suspicious looking that someday you will really be mistaken for a criminal!'_  
The laughter echoed in his mind and he frowned at the irony of the situation.   
_'I'll kill him for saying that, he cursed me.'_  
His vicious train of thought was suddenly interrupted with the realization that this meant he could just go home.   
"Since this was all just a misunderstanding I will find my way back home." he said, slowly getting up from the chair "I won't say anything to the police I swear! I'll stay as quiet as a-"   
"no"   
"w-what?"   
"I'm not letting you leave. How can I trust you to keep your word and not tell the police that I'm hiding out here?"   
Reita felt his heart drop to his stomach when the other said this. He dropped his gaze down to his feet to avoid looking into the mysterious man's eyes, but that didn't help his nervousness. He could feel his whole body grow hot under the mysterious man's angry gaze, and he started to sweat as if he had just done his routine warm up at the gym. ' _Does this fucker have laser vision or some shit? '_ he wondered silently to himself. Laser vision of course could be the only possible explanation as to why he felt the mysterious man's gaze was burning him slowly. ' _what if he's some sort of evil being from krypton? Like an evil superman of sorts'_  
Once again Reita's thoughts were interrupted. 

"In order for me to let you go you have to do something for me" said the mysterious man "that's the only way I know that you will be able to stay silent, because the moment you say something about this meeting place you will become involved, the police will be after you too. Or I could just cut your tongue to guarantee your silence" 

 _'was this guy serious? I'm no criminal!'_ he thought to himself, and once again Ruki's mocking laughter came to mind.  _  
_ "But I'm no criminal! I don't know how to steal or anything like that! I can't possibly! B-b-besides, I'm too busy! I told you already, I'm a musician. I have a world tour coming up so no time! N-no time! No time for crime!" he laughed nervously "Oh hey! That rhymes... hahaa... please don't take my tongue..." 

"Wait... what did you just say?" replied the mysterious man, his cold angry glare suddenly brightening up "world tour?" 

"y-yes... I did say that..." 

The man's face instantly twisted up into some sort of evil triumphant smile that sent cold hard shivers down Reita's spine. What could this man possibly be thinking?   
"Because I am a very generous man, and because this was all a silly misunderstanding, I will let you off with one very simple condition" said the man, his smile growing even larger "I will give you a list of some simple errands I need you to do for me in a few major cities" the man put his hands up to make a sarcastic little finger quote around the word errands and his smile somehow grew even larger.   
_'his face is going to explode'_ Reita thought to himself before swallowing hard out of nervousness. He didn't like where this was going.   
The man handed him a sheet of paper and a pen, and ordered him to list all the cities he would be touring in.  
"Excellent." said the man, his smile giving one last stretch before completely fading away. "tomorrow night I will have my men meet you at the same alley and they will give you my list of errands with instructions" the man said, his expression back to that rock solid icy glare of evil. His gaze then turned even colder still and he looked straight into Reita's eyes before speaking again "If you utter a word about this to anyone at all I will take your tongue out with my bare hands. Understood?"   
Reita gave a very small squeak of fear and he simply nodded in agreement. Yup, this guy was serious alright. Then, in the blink of an eye two more men came into the room, grabbed him by the arms, and lead him back into the van that brought him here. He was dropped off in front of the alley where he was taken from, and the van simply drove out of sight as if nothing had ever happened. He nearly ran all the way home as soon as the van was out of sight. Too frightened and shaken up from the past events, all Reita did once he returned home was take a hot shower to relax his tensed muscles and then he went straight to bed. 

 _'Go to sleep Akira go to sleep. This is just another stupid dream of yours. Go to sleep'  
_ He repeated this to himself like a prayer until he finally fell asleep. 

~

The following day went by as normal. More boring meetings to discuss things that had already been talked about. More mindless teasing in between breaks. And more coffee to bear through the long hours. Reita had written off last night's events as a dream, and he was going about his day as if it was any other. It wasn't until he was walking back home at night that he was reminded that last night hadn't been a dream at all.   
"Oi!" called a voice from the dark alley.   
A tall thin man walked out to hand Reita a sealed envelope, and then he walked off without a word. Reita quietly tucked the envelope into one of the pockets of his jacket and then he continued to silently walk home with his hands in his pockets to keep them from trembling so much. The first thing he did when he got home, was sit down to open the envelope. 

_'shit'_

He said to himself as he slowly tore the envelope open 

_'shit shit shit shit'_

He quickly glanced through the list and he gave out a sigh of relief. At least he wouldn't be killing anyone. He read through the list again and started to laugh out of nervousness. ' _I can't believe I'm actually going to do this.'_ Although it wasn't as if he had a choice. Reita carried on with his nightly routine, hoping that it would help calm him a little, but when he got to bed he realized his whole body was still jittery from the mere thought of the situation he had gotten himself into. On accident of course. It had been bad luck, he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. He closed his eyes and started to think about the double life that he would be living these next few months. 


	2. Gift Box

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so the tour commences! Will our dashing protagonist be able to handle the best of both worlds?

The days that followed went by far too quickly for Reita's liking. Before he knew it he was walking through the airport, carrying more luggage than he could handle. While they all looked forward to the tour, no one was too happy about the long flight ahead, so the staff and the rest of the members walked along in silence, nothing else could be heard but the sounds of people chatting and bustling about the airport. The silence was soon broken by a voice from behind Reita. 

"I bet Taka could fit into your suitcase" said Uruha, who gestured to the large suitcase that Reita was dragging along. They all burst into a fit of giggles, all except Ruki who simply groaned in complaint.

"When will you guys grow tired of all the short jokes?" grumbled Ruki as he struggled to drag along his exaggeratedly heavy luggage.

"When you grow taller" replied Reita, and they all laughed again. 

~

**Arrived in Mexico City**

After a very long flight, a layover in Houston, and another flight, they finally arrived safely to their destination. Reita spent the entire journey thinking about how he was going to pull off the first errand on the list. It was a warm night and he silently lay on the bed in his hotel room, contemplating the task at hand. Reita reached over into his luggage and he looked through for the jacket he had hidden the letter into. He dug his hand into the jacket pocket and he pulled out the folded up sheet of paper. 

_1\. Mexico City: our contact will come to find you outside of the hotel on your second night there, you will receive a package that you must smuggle into the U.S. Further instructions on who and where you will be delivering it to will be inside the package._

He sighed to himself as he thought about this. How could he possibly smuggle something? Reita already felt guilty enough carrying around the list of errands that he was given. He hid the note back into the pocket of his jacket, buried the garment deep into his luggage, and then hid his face into a pillow. For a good while he lay there in silence, lost in thought.

' _I don't want to do this'_ he thought to himself, but the idea of having his tongue cut off was too much to bear.

Reita hardly got any sleep that night as he started to wonder what he would have to smuggle and how he would do it. As the night went on he started imagining the worst kinds of things that would be inside the mysterious package he would be receiving tomorrow night, but each time he closed his eyes he imagined what would happen if he failed. Eventually, exhaustion won him over, and he fell into a short but deep sleep.   
At breakfast the next morning, everyone seemed to be horribly tired and in a slightly sour mood.

' _W_ _e're the new cast of The Walking Dead'_ Reita thought to himself as he looked around the table.

Sure enough, everyone was sporting their "designer eyebags", as Ruki liked to call them, and everyone was quite silent with the occasional groan of exhaustion rippling through the breakfast table. ' _we even sound like zombies'_ he thought, as he heard someone groaning and softly mumbling "my back..." in between bites of food. Reita hadn't uttered a single word all day, but nobody thought much of it since everyone was too tired and jet lagged to even speak. It wasn't until lunch time rolled around that the others started to realize that something was wrong. Reita had spent the day quietly sulking to himself, hiding behind one of the novels he brought along, and counting down the hours until nightfall. They had a live tonight, that was exciting, but after that he would be receiving a mysterious package to smuggle, not exciting. Everyone else seemed to be in a better mood now, and the lunch table was filled with chatter and laughter. Meanwhile, Reita sat quietly at the table, slowly picking at his food without much interest at all. In fact, he was so lost in his own stressful thoughts, that he didn't notice a small well manicured hand slowly reaching into his plate and dragging away a jalapeno. 

"Wow" said a familiar voice, it was Ruki "You've really lost your mind this time" he added, as he nibbled on the jalapeno that he took from Reita's plate.   
Finally, Reita snapped out of his trance and he looked over to the other who was sitting beside him. 

"Hey! That was mine!" 

"And you weren't eating it, so it's mine now" replied Ruki in a slightly bratty tone as he took the last bite of the jalapeno pepper. "did you leave your mind in your suitcase or under the bed?"   
And before Reita could reply, the other three did so for him 

"He left it in the gutter" 

"He left it on the plane" 

"He left it back in Japan"

What followed these replies was a chorus of laughter and hi-fives from the other three members. Reita turned around to angrily glare at them, and when he turned his attention back to his plate Ruki had already taken the last jalapeno.

"Stop eating my food!" he whined 

"No." replied the other "Anyway, what's wrong? Seriously. You look miserable"

For a moment, Reita thought about telling his friend about the situation that is bad luck had gotten him into. It would take some of the burden off his shoulders if he could just talk to someone. Just as he was about to come clean, he remembered the mysterious man's threat.  
' _What if he finds out I told someone? Will he take their tongue too? Oh god...'_ he couldn't bear to think about anyone of his friends getting so hurt because of him, so he decided to stay silent. 

"Um... hello? Earth to Akira" said Ruki as he gently tugged at a strand of Reita's hair. 

"Huh? Oh sorry..." Reita mumbled, he hadn't realized that he forgot to reply to the other "I'm fine I'm just so tired... I must be getting old" he said, and he chuckled lightly. 

"That's what you get for making fun of Yuu so much. You know what they say, what goes around comes around" said Ruki, who seemed satisfied with the other's response and so he didn't press further on the matter. Ruki himself was also quite tired from the trip. 

"Oi! I heard that!" yelled Aoi from further down the table 

"You did? Oh that's great, looks like your new hearing aid is working wonderfully, old man" replied Ruki in a very casual tone. He took a sip of coffee while everyone within earshot started to howl with laughter at their bickering. 

"I'm going to shove you into that suitcase and that's how you'll be traveling for the rest of this tour!" Aoi yelled back 

"Sure you will" Ruki mumbled, never taking his attention away from the cup of coffee.  
Reita laughed as well, and his stressful thoughts were pushed to the back of his mind. At least his friends could distract him for a while. 

~

The rest of the day went by at lightning speed, and soon Reita and the others were making their way back to the hotel to rest for the night. He went into his hotel room and took a refreshing shower to unwind. However, he had this strange nagging sensation that he had somehow managed to forget something important. What could it be? As soon as the realization hit him he nearly jumped out of the shower.

' _Fuck! The package!'_

He had forgotten all about picking up the package.  
Reita quickly dried himself off, got dressed, and then he started to make his way out of the hotel room. He kept his gaze down to his feet and he tried to walk out as fast as he could.  
' _Fucking hell, what if someone sees me? What do I tell them if they ask where I'm going? What if someone sees me getting this package? What the fuck can I say after that? Fuck fuck fuck'_  
These thoughts accompanied Reita as he briskly made his way out to the back of the hotel. He nervously stood in the shadows with his hands in his pockets, it was a cool night and the sound of cars zooming by in the streets calmed him down slightly. That moment of relaxation was short lived, and interrupted by a stranger's tap to Reita's shoulder. He jumped like a startled cat in response, and the stranger tried to stifle a laugh. Reita looked at the man, he was dressed like a hotel staff member, and suddenly Reita wasn't feeling too good about staying at this hotel. The man didn't say a word, he simply held out a small box and patiently waited for Reita to take it. Reita cautiously took the box into his own hands, and he looked down at it curiously. It was just a plain cardboard box, and it was surprisingly light. ' _What the hell is in here?'_  
Reita then looked back up, prepared to ask the stranger about the box, but when he did the man was almost out of sight.  
' _So he wasn't a part of the hotel staff?'_  
Thought Reita as he watched the stranger walk away from the hotel and disappear around the street corner. He stood there for what felt like ages, completely dumbfounded by what had just happened. It was the loud sound of a car skidding on the street nearby that pulled Reita out of his thoughts. He hid the box under his arm and he walked back to his hotel room in the same manner that he walked out. Once in the privacy of his room he sat the box down onto the bed and he stared at it for a long time, debating on weather or not he should open it. Half of him was curious to know what the plain little box contained, but the other half was frightened that it would be something horrible. Was it money? Or important documents to some government conspiracy? Or... fingers??? After a lot of silent debating Reita read over the note again.

_"further instructions on who and where you will be delivering it to will be inside the package."_

And so he slowly opened the box. Without looking, he turned the box over and dumped the contents onto his bed. 

"What the hell?!?!" he yelled out

 **"Candy?!?!?!"**  
It was candy. That's what was inside the box. A variety of Mexican candies, and a note with instructions. 


	3. Candy Cartel

_"These candies are all illegal in the U.S you must find a way to smuggle them to Dallas. A new contact will meet you, make sure to wear the bandana so that they recognize you, and they will escort you to the delivery spot. This is an important gift to an important person. We need to be on good terms with them so make sure that all the candy is safely delivered to the one known as Holy Death"_

Those were the instructions that were inside the package along with the candy, and frankly it all seemed ridiculous to Reita. Except for that last part where it mentioned who the package was for. With a name like that anyone would be afraid to deliver to them. 

"Candy..." he mumbled to himself as he stared out the hotel room window

"they're having me smuggle candy. How ridiculous" he scoffed "do they think that I'm not capable of doing something else? Something actually important? I'm strong and sneaky and-" suddenly he cut himself off as he realized what it was that he was saying. 

"Goddamnit Akira..." he said to himself "instead of being relieved you're not being forced to do anything serious, you're jealous because they didn't see you capable of being able to pull off a real crime" 

He pulled away from the window and he let himself fall back onto the bed. Reita let out a long sigh of exasperation. He blamed the lack of oxygen in this city as well as the jet lag for his ludicrous thinking.  
' _Even I'm not this stupid'_ he thought.  
Wait a minute, how did they know where to send the contact to? How did they know what hotel he was staying at? For a moment Reita felt a wave of panic run through his body, but it easily died down when he remembered that even his fans had managed to find which hotel they were staying at. That was actually the reason for him being couped up in the hotel room today. A few fanatics had found the hotel and were either outside or down in the lobby. He rolled over, buried his face into a pillow, and he let out a muffled scream of frustration. This whole situation was stressing him out, but he was too afraid to go down into the hotel's gym room to blow off some steam. This would be a long trip. 

~

**Sao Paulo, Brasil**

After a few more days in Mexico City, an unexpectedly long layover in Houston, again, and a canceled flight to Argentina, they all arrived to Brasil. Reita tugged along his luggage, his mind numb from all the frustration. He only had a few more days to come up with a way to smuggle the candies, and on top of that their flight to Argentina had been canceled and they got stuck in an airport for a few days. 

_'Can this trip get any better'_

And almost instantly, a reply to his rhetorical question came calling out from down the hall. The sounds of some fans screaming in excitement came rushing to Reita's ears, and he groaned softly.  

' _To think I had completely forgotten about this. Oh Brasil how I've missed you'  
_

Because of course nothing screams out appreciation more than a crowd of excited fans ready to welcome you into their country.   
He and the others took a moment to mentally prepare themselves for what lay just a few steps ahead.

The trip to the hotel felt long and arduous. Not a single word was uttered in the van on their way there, or upon arrival, or even at the lunch table. It wasn't until after lunch was over and all the luggage was put away in their respectful rooms that the mood seemed to finally lighten up. After taking a short walk through the streets, enjoying the warm air and the liberty of an open space, Reita returned to his hotel room feeling at ease. He took a warm shower to relieve the slight soreness in his muscles from dragging along heavy luggage, and that was enough to relax him completely. He gave out a relieved sigh and he looked out the window. 

' _What a beautiful view'_

The serene silence was interrupted by the little ping of an incoming message to his phone. He reached over to the little night table where he had left his phone and he looked to the message. 

 **Kouyou:** hey guess what I got? ;) 

 **Akira:**???? 

 **Kouyou:** ta da! I'm so loved! <3 Jealous yet? [ _image_ ]

Attached to the message was a picture of various fan gifts sitting atop Uruha's bed. There were a few letters, some drawings, candy, and a plush toy. 

 **Akira:** why would I be jealous? Didn't you see my gift box in Mexico? ;-))))) haha 

Suddenly, an idea dawned on him. He looked back to the picture and he zoomed in on the little plush toy, then he looked to his luggage. A triumphant smile spread across his face and he quickly ran to his luggage to dig out the box of candies he had received in Mexico. He took a few of the candies into his hand and then he looked back to the plush toy in the picture, his smile growing larger. 

' _Brilliant'_

_~_

**Dallas Airport, USA**

Reita was now standing in line at the airport security. His palms were clammy and he tried his best not to look too suspicious (but the face mask was clearly not helping him out here). There were quite a few curious pairs of eyes staring at him from various spots in the snaked line, probably due to the mask on his face. There were also a lot of children staring at him intently, and that was most likely due to the rather large teddy bear Reita was carrying in his arms. While they were still in Brazil, he got the brilliant idea of hiding the candies inside a plush toy and then shoving that into his luggage. He went out one day to search for a plushy big enough to fit all the candies inside without it looking obvious. Unfortunately, that meant he had to find a rather large plushy. So now there he was, a grown man, a rockstar, waiting in line for airport security with a large teddy bear in his arms. To make matters worse, the bear had a large pink bow wrapped around its neck (it was the only one he could find in this size). 

"Next" said the security guard 

Reita reluctantly walked towards the conveyor belt and he set his belongings into a plastic tray, the teddy bear included.  

' _Holy fuck... oh my god... act cool Akira! Act normal!'_ he yelled to himself in his thoughts, as he made sure to avoid looking to where the teddy bear had gone.

The security guard motioned for him to step through the metal detector, and he quickly walked up to it. Reita felt his heart was about to beat out of his chest, and to make matters worse, the guard came up to frisk him. As if the detector hadn't been enough. God, why was American airport security so damn strict? Why was he so damn nervous about the candy? It's just candy. What could they do to him if it was found? Suddenly he caught a glimpse of the teddy bear slowly rolling out of the conveyor belt and he felt his stomach drop. It was only candy, but it was still being smuggled, and he didn't want to find out what the penalty for this crime could be. Seconds felt like hours to him, but at long last he was allowed to proceed. He quickly went to the other end of the conveyor belt to grab his belongings from the trays, he scooped the teddy bear into is arms and he squeezed it tightly. 

' _We did it! We fucking did it! You and I buddy! We did this!'_

Hidden underneath his face mask lay a proud smile. He had successfully committed his first crime, smuggling. And he owed his success to his fluffy friend the teddy bear. 

' _I ought to name you'_ he thought as he looked down to the plushy in his arms. 

"You look fucking stupid carrying that thing around you know" said a voice 

Reita sighed and rolled his eyes "Thanks, and you look fucking stupid too, Yuu" he replied. 

Aoi scoffed at the other but he couldn't come up with a single comeback, which only made him angrier. He wasn't in the best of moods since the tour began. "Respect your elders" was all he could say, and he walked away.

~

Later that night, Reita made his way to the back of the hotel, wearing the black and white bandana over his nose, as instructed. In his arms he had the fuzzy teddy bear that contained the smuggled candies, he named it kumamon. He waited around for a short while and soon enough a large black suv rolled in through the parking lot. The car stopped in front of Reita, and he stared at it curiously, wondering if this was the contact he was supposed to meet. Suddenly the back passenger door opened up and a hand waved for him to come inside. Reita took a moment to gather up his courage, and then he hesitantly stepped into the car, clutching onto Kumamon for comfort. Inside, the vehicle was really clean, and it smelled new. Sitting next to him were two men that could only be described as men in black. They wore sleek black suits and black tinted sunglasses despite the fact that it was night time. The car started to move, but no one said or did anything. Suddenly, one of the men in black spoke up.

"Holy Death" said one of the men, and they motioned a hand to one of the individual seats in front of them. 

"La Santa Muerte" said the other, mimicking the same hand motion that the first man had done. 

Reita swallowed nervously and he tightened his grip on the plushy. As if this was some scene from a mafia movie, the seat in front of them turned around and reveled this said "Death" person. Much to Reita's surprise, the person these men all referred to as Death was actually a very petite young woman with an angry expression on her face. 

' _Taka, I found you a girlfriend'_ thought Reita teasingly, and he had to bite down on his lower lip to stop himself from giggling at the idea of this small woman being Ruki's ideal match. 

Without warning, the woman started barking out a series of questions, none of which poor Reita understood. His lack of response seemed to anger the small woman further, and she started to yell the same questions over and over, louder and louder. Not knowing what to do, Reita pressed his back against the back of his seat and he squeezed the teddy bear for comfort, but to no avail. By now the woman was completely fed up with Reita's silence, so she pulled out a knife and shoved it directly in front of his face. She asked a new question this time, one he understood. 

"What do you want?" hissed the woman 

".....go home" Reita's reply came as a small frightened squeak. 

' _The candy! Give her the candy you idiot!'_

He remembered that his mission was to deliver the smuggled candies to this woman, which he had hidden away into the teddy bear. 

"F-ffor you" he said, and he handed the teddy bear to the woman with a shaking hand. 

La Santa Muerte stared at the plush toy for a moment, and she carefully took it into her arms without another word. At least she had stopped screaming. In one swift movement the woman used her knife to cut through the very small poorly made stitches on the back of the bear's neck, where Reita had made the cut a few days before to stuff the candies inside. However, she didn't stop there, with her knife the small angry woman sliced through half of the plushy's neck. She tossed the knife aside and then ripped the toy's head off with her bare hands. 

 _"KUMAMON NOOOOOO!!!"_ Reita screamed out in despair and he reached down to the floor to pick up the plushy's torn off head. 

La Santa Muerte squealed in delight at the contents she found within the soft fluff of the toy. She poured it all out onto the empty seat beside her and then she turned to Reita and thanked him. Reita was far too upset about the toy to respond to the woman. He simply nodded to her and then he went back to contemplating the torn off head of his teddy bear. They had gone through so much together in the past few days. Kumamon had saved Reita's tongue, but alas their adventures were short lived. In a few minutes they had returned to the hotel parking lot, and the car stopped to drop off Reita in the same place he had been picked up. In that small time frame the small woman had started to eat some of the candies that were inside the bear, an act that Reita found to be too gruesome to watch.

' _She's eating Kumamon's insides'_ thought Reita. 

He had thrown away what remained of his beloved teddy bear in a dumpster that sat off to the side of the parking lot. By the time Reita returned to his hotel room he was too shaken up and upset by the events of the past hour. He changed into his pyjamas and went straight to bed. 

' _One down, only a few more to go'_ he said to himself, and he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. 

 


	4. R&R Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Houston, we have a problem.  
> -  
> The boys find themselves trapped in the airport! Reita makes an important decision between ducklings and kittens, and we are introduced to mysterious R number one.

**Houston International Airport, USA**

“What???? What do you mean the fucking plane left???”

“Oh god… Please tell me this isn’t happening…”

“Let’s try not to panic. Stay calm everyone”

“Everyone else is gone too... Shit”

Despite the series of strange events that had been occurring recently in Reita’s life, getting left behind at the airport while on tour was definitely not something he had ever imagined would happen.

“We’re alone... at the airport… oh my god” he mumbled, this trip just kept getting better and better.

For a short while everyone was in a panic, running around the airport trying to figure out what to do. After what felt like ages of aimlessly wandering around like frightened children, a solution had finally been found. They would all catch a later flight to Toronto and the tour would still be right on schedule. All they had to do was kill some time in the airport as they waited for the flight. In truth, while the rest were worried about cancelling yet another performance, Reita was more worried about falling behind schedule with his list of “errands”. Not that having to cancel another performance wouldn’t upset him, but the thought of having his tongue pulled out due to not being able to carry out all the errands on the list was currently the biggest of his worries.

‘ _Thank god I didn’t have any task assigned at Buenos Aires’_

Reita relaxed a little now that he knew everything would work out just fine. He sat down on a chair in the waiting area and he pulled out a novel from his carry-on bag. The others were currently giggling at their situation, and talking about what a great story this would make for time to come. Before long each one was in their own little world. Aoi was glued to his phone, Kai was napping over his luggage, Ruki had disappeared into thin air as usual and so had Uruha. Half an hour later, his leisure reading was interrupted by a repeated tapping to his shoulder. He looked up from his book and was met with a worried looking Uruha. Before he could ask his friend what was wrong, Uruha quickly blurted out

“Akira I need your help with something”

Reita looked a little confused but regardless he nodded in agreement to the other “Sure. What is it?”

And, with all the seriousness in the world, the other replied “What is cuter, a duckling or a kitten?”

“What?”

“I’m serious” replied Uruha “I saw some plushies at a gift shop in here and I want to get one for Rie as a gift, but I don’t know which she would like more”

And then it finally made sense to Reita   
“Ahh, I see”

Rie was Uruha’s very very small girlfriend, she worked as a packaging designer for a cosmetics company. The two met in a coffee shop last summer, and Reita had to admit, he was truly hoping that they would stay together. After having known Uruha for so many years, he hadn’t seen anyone else make his friend as happy as Rie made him.

**_~ The Previous Summer ~_ **

Reita had just gotten out of the shower after a good long workout when he heard his phone buzzing from an incoming call. He walked over to his bed, where it sat, and he looked at the number.

“Hello?”

Instead of hearing a normal greeting from his friend “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN I’VE BEEN CALLING YOU FOR AGES” was the reply that came

“I was at the gym” Reita pulled the phone away from his ear and he looked at his notifications. 50 missed calls. All from Uruha. “Why do I have 50 missed calls from you?”

“Because something happened and I need your help!” Uruha spoke in a very rushed and frightened manner, and it worried Reita instantly

“What happened? What did you do? Hopefully nothing stupid”

“I met this girl at a coffee shop”

“Oh you did? That’s great!” Reita gave a sigh of relief. Of course it was a girl. Uruha wasn’t the most suave man around, and he often came to Reita for advice on these kinds of things or just for some encouragement.

“NO YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND” the other yelled back, and Reita had to pull the phone away from his ear because of how loud the other was screaming. “I FELL OVER HER”  
Almost instantly, Reita burst into laughter.

“What? Are you serious?” he said in between laughs “I thought girls were supposed to be falling over you not the other way around!”

“Stop laughing at me!” whined Uruha “She’s really small and she bent over to pick up a coin and I was really sleepy and didn’t see her…” and for a second it sounded as if Uruha was about to cry of pure embarrassment

Reita had to cover the speaker with his hand so the other couldn’t hear him snickering at the thought of him tripping over some poor girl trying to pick up her change.

“That um… wow. I don’t know what to say to that, man”

Uruha sighed at the other end of the line “I bought her coffee as an apology and we sat and chatted for a while… She um… ahem… she gave me her phone number”

“She did? Damn! That’s my man!” Reita said triumphantly “Only you could manage to turn something like that into a great opportunity!” he gave a small sigh of relief to know that the situation did not end in embarrassment. “Wait… but then why are you calling me so panicked?”

“Because I don’t know what to do now!” yelled Uruha

“Call her you dumbass”   
Sometimes, Uruha wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed  
“You have her number, just call and ask if she wants to meet again for coffee or something. It’s not like you’re going to trip over her again”

And that was how Uruha met Rie.   
Reita had to admit, she was rather cute, if Uruha wasn’t his best friend he would be quite jealous. She was about half his size but with very soft and delicate features, short dark hair to frame her lovely face, and a smile that could make anyone’s day a little brighter. Whenever they had the time to be together it was often spent at one of their homes lounging around in pyjamas, snacking, and binge watching movies or tv series until they fell asleep or had to get back to work.

_**~ A few months ago ~** _

“You’re late” said Reita as Uruha rushed in through the studio’s entrance “and smiling?” despite being quite late, Uruha had a noticeably large smile adorned on his lips. Usually when he came in late he was in a rather bad mood. Either he had spent time in traffic or accidentally overslept, or was hung-over. 

“I um...” he looked down to his feet and his cheeks suddenly blushed a soft shade of red “We slept together last night” he replied in almost a whisper

Reita came over and roughly pat his friend’s shoulder in approval “That’s my man! Sc-“

“No no no no. I mean we literally slept. Together. At my place. Sleeping. She’s so cute…” Uruha let out a subtle little sigh as he thought of his small lover peacefully curled up in his arms.

It took almost all of Reita’s strength to hold back a sigh “That’s… also great! Really, it is. It’s um… it’s great she trusts you this way now! You two are really making progress!”

~

“So what do you think? Duckling or kitten?” asked Uruha again

“Duckling" Reita said firmly "Kittens are always considered cutesy. A duckling is more unique. Get her a duckling plushy." 

"Great idea, but you know what?" 

"What?" 

"You should come with me to the gift shop. There's just so many different kinds! I can't decide! You have to help me" 

Reita sighed and looked down to the novel in his hands. ' _why can't they leave us alone?'_ he thought to himself as he stared at the closed book.   
"She's your girlfriend, Kouyou! Not mine! How am I supposed to know what kind of duckling she would like" he replied, hoping that would convince the other to go off on his own. 

"Please? Come on Akira, help me out here" 

Reita gave out another sigh and he gave up. "Alright alright. Lets go pick out a duckling" he said as he put his novel back into the carry-on. 

 


End file.
